The 5 Best Ice Cream Shops in NYC

Summer brings with it many pleasures—outdoor drinking, procuring absurd farmer’s tans, and going on awesome road trips. But the chief among these seasonal delights is a visit to an ice-cream parlor at dusk on a warm night, when you can find everyone from grandmas and toddlers to skirt-chasing teens sidling up for sundaes, milkshakes, and ridiculouslyAmerican large scoops of mint chocolate chip.

New York has always boasted a dizzying variety of ice cream options; however, there have been some particularly stellar shops that have opened recently. These stores serve up exceptional oddball flavors and small-batch, lush products. We’ve also featured our favorite old-school ice cream parlor, because there’s nothing like stepping into a time-warp and ordering an oversized sundae.

Here, the First We Feast team celebrates our favorite ice creams shops in NYC.

Ample Hills Creamery

Address and phone: 623 Vanderbilt Ave, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (347-240-3926)
Website: amplehills.comGood for: From-scratch ice cream in outrageous flavors
While crazy flavors like French toast and Sixpoint Otis Stout have helped put Ample Hills on the map, it's ice-cream–making fundamentals that make this scoop shop so special: Sci-fi writer-turned-dessert wizard Brian Smith makes his own custard base (a rarity in New York due to the strict USDA-approval process) using local eggs and dairy, then crafts each bizarro concoction. Amid the 16 daily rotating flavors are standouts like salted crack caramel and "the Munchies," which is packed with clusters of potato chips, pretzels, Ritz crackers, and mini M&Ms. Pro tip: Ample Hills is wildly popular and almost always full of new Brooklyn parents with kids in tow, but you can pre-order pints and skip the line.
Order this: The Munchies, ooey gooey butter cake, salted crack caramel, build-your-own sundae

Big Gay Ice Cream

Address and phone: 125 East 7th St * 61 Grove St (212-533-9333)
Website:biggayicecream.com
Good for: Soft-serve fanatics
Of all the food trucks that have made the jump to brick-and-mortar in NYC, none match the cultish appeal of Big Gay Ice Cream. In addition to being Twitter stars and beloved food-world personalities (jiu jitsu with Anthony Bourdain is a normal Tuesday afternoon for them), owner Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff have created a loveable brand that marries their hilariously camp sensibilities with the city's best soft serve (sorry, Milk Bar). The guys are always coming up with new concoctions that they broadcast on Twitter (rose-cardamom swirl, strawberry-taragon sauce), but we love the classics that go back to the days when they first started parking their truck off Union Square: The Salty Pimp, which is laced with dulce de leche and sea salt before getting a chocolate dip, and the Nilla wafer-covered Bea Arthur.
Order this: The Salty Pimp, Bea Arthur, Mermaid

Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream

Address and phone: 2 Rivington St (212-209-7684)
Website:morgensternsnyc.comGood for: Crazy-inventive flavors in a polished parlor environment
Nick Morgenstern isn't new to the NYC restaurant scene. The prolific restaurateur opened El Rey coffee shop and Goat Town; prior to that, he worked in the pastry departments at Gramercy Tavern and Daniel. Morgenstern opened his Lower East Side ice cream parlor just last month, turning his attention to eggless ice cream that's relatively low in sugar and butterfat. This particular style of ice cream is light, but still super smooth and creamy—so there's no reason to not enjoy five or six scoops. Grab a spot at the counter, where you can gorge on unexpected flavors like salted chocolate, durian-banana, raw milk, burnt-honey vanilla, and Fernet black walnut. The exceptional raw-milk ice cream is best paired with Armagnac butterscotch topping.
Order this: Salted chocolate, raw milk, durian banana, Vietnamese coffee, burnt honey vanilla, The New God Flow

OddFellows

Address and phone: 175 Kent Ave (347-599-0556); 75 E 4th St (917-475-1812)
Website:oddfellowsnyc.comGood for: Seasonal and delightfully-odd flavors
Former wd~50 pastry chef Sam Mason and his business partners, Mohan and Holiday Kumar, opened their flagship Oddfellows location in Williamsburg last June. The flavors they dreamed up—including cornbread, chorizo-caramel, and Thai iced cream—were inventive, innovative, and right on the money. To date, Oddfellows has created 120 flavors, and there's been too many hits to name. The small-batch ice cream is made with milk sourced from Battenkill Valley Creamery, and the flavors rotate daily. If it's available, order the PB&J with toast—peanut butter ice cream with swirls of Welch's concord grape jelly. The taste is nostalgic, yet infinitely better than any ol' sandwich you had as a kid. And if you're a serious chocoholic, order your ice cream drizzled with Mast Brothers hot fudge.
Order this: PB&J with toast; chorizo-caramel swirl; Thai iced cream; buttermilk honey blueberry; milkshakes; waffle cones

Eddie's Sweet Shop

Address and phone: 105-29 Metropolitan Ave #1, Flushing, Queens (718-520-8514)
Website:facebook.com/EddiesSweetShopGood for: An old-school ice cream parlor experience; ridiculously-large sundaes
Going to Eddie's Sweet Shop is like walking into a time-warp—there's a marble-topped bar with spinning wooden stools, an ancient-looking cash register, and a honeycomb-tiled floor. The soda fountain hasn't change much since it opened a century ago, and it still retains its original charm. The 20-plus flavors of ice cream, served in mammoth-sized scoops, are dense and creamy, yet not overwhelmingly rich. Standouts include coffee chip, vanilla fudge, and butter pecan. Do like Action Bronson and order a sundae with hot fudge, marshmallow sauce, and a mountain of barely-sweetened whipped cream. (Heads up: Eddie's is cash only.)
Order this: Coffee chip, vanilla fudge, butter pecan, sundaes with all the fixins

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